The Pentagon on Tuesday will release its long-anticipated report on how ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays from openly serving in uniform might impact troop readiness and morale. The comprehensive review -- expected to number several hundred pages -- will be closely scrutinized by members of the military and lawmakers eager to determine whether they should end the ban.
The report is expected to be released around midday, according to sources. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and the report's co-authors, Defense Department General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson and Army Gen. Carter Ham, will meet with reporters shortly after its release.
McALESTER - Members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals may have found themselves in the wrong town Saturday.
Shortly after finishing their protest at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey of McAlester, a half-dozen protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to their minivan, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed.
A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda.
In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.
Michael Renken, 18, graduated last spring from North Quincy High School, where for a time he was the only openly gay male student. While the vast majority of schoolmates did not harass him about his homosexuality, says Renken, a small minority did, periodically peppering him with antigay slurs.
Usually he tried to ignore them. But he says there were times when he grew depressed enough to contemplate suicide.
DES MOINES — In a rebuke of the state supreme court with implications for judicial elections across the country, voters here removed three justices who participated in a ruling last year that made the state the first in the Midwest to permit same-sex marriage.
The close vote concluded an unusually aggressive ouster campaign in the typically sleepy state judicial retention elections that pitted concerns about judicial overreaching against concerns about judicial independence. After years of grumbling about “robed masters,” conservatives demonstrated their ability to target and remove judges who issue opinions they disagree with.
The U.S. Department of Education is warning schools: Tolerating or failing to adequately address ethnic, sexual or gender-based harassment could put them in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.
After several high-profile cases of bullying, the department is sending letters to schools, colleges and universities across the country on Tuesday, reminding them of their federal obligations.
Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, said the department was responding to what it senses as a growing problem within schools.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday rejected a challenge to state election law brought by a group that opposes gay marriage and supports Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage argued last week that it should be allowed to run ads for Paladino, who has railed against same-sex marriage, without reporting donors' names or adhering to other election law requirements governing political committees.
October 24, 2010|By Melissa Maerz, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from New York — Bert and Ernie are not gay. In their 31 years on "Sesame Street," they've never marched in a Pride parade or plastered a rainbow sticker on Oscar the Grouch's trash can. Sesame Workshop has always contended that they're just friends who happen to live together and sleep side by side in well-tailored pajamas.
And yet, because of a comment on "Sesame Street's" Twitter account, some are claiming that Bert is officially out of the closet.
(CNN) -- Florida's ban on adoptions by gay men and lesbians came to an official end Friday.
Attorney General Bill McCollum said the case that led to the overturning of the state's 33-year-old law wasn't the "right case" to take to the state's Supreme Court.
Licensed foster parent Frank Martin Gill had sued to have the ban overturned. He wanted to adopt two boys who had been placed in his care after the Florida Department of Children and Families removed them from their home for neglect.
(CNN) -- Lana Lawless hits golf balls. She hits them hard and far, with astonishing accuracy. She won the Women's Long Drivers of America competition in 2008 when she hit a ball more than 250 yards. Lanais so good, in fact, that the LDA changed the rules this year to prevent her from competing. The LPGA has a rule to specifically exclude her, as well.
In August 2009, 18-year-old runner Caster Semenya from South Africa won the gold medal in the 800-meter event of the World Track and Field Championships, beating her nearest rival by an astonishing two seconds. Afterward, she faced weeks of humiliating psychological, gynecological and physical testing to prove that she was female ordered by International Association of Athletics Federations. She eventually was allowed to keep her medal.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn held an emergency meeting Tuesday to tackle the sharp rise in anti-gay hate crimes across the city.
At the meeting with advocates, bar owners and the NYPD, Quinn targeted gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino, saying his recent anti-gay rhetoric is partly to blame for the spate of attacks.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court should rely on the same evidence a trial judge considered when he overturned California's same-sex marriage ban and reject efforts by the ban's sponsors to supplement their case with "distortions and misstatements," lawyers for two same-sex couples say.
In a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Monday, the attorneys for the couples who successfully sued to strike down Proposition 8 countered arguments that Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco conducted a one-sided trial.
WASHINGTON — President Obama was put on the defensive on issues including the economy, gay rights and race relations during a televised town-hall-style forum on Thursday that captured the disillusionment taking root among younger voters who were a significant force in his election.
Mr. Obama fielded questions from audience members and Twitter users during an hour streamed live on the Web sites of the sponsors, Viacom’s BET, CMT and MTV.
Despite free-speech concerns, Supreme Court justices sounded sympathetic Wednesday to a lawsuit filed by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral was picketed by protesters with signs like, "Thank God for IEDs."
The justices appeared inclined to set a limit to freedom of speech when ordinary citizens are targeted with especially personal and hurtful attacks. The 1st Amendment says the government may not restrict free speech, but it is less clear when it shields speakers from private lawsuits.
Attorney General Mike Cox changed his stance Thursday, suspending Andrew Shirvell after the assistant attorney general attracted national attention for a controversial blog that ridicules and denounces a University of Michigan student leader for his gay advocacy, religious beliefs and character.
The suspension came a day after Cox told CNN he didn't intend to fire Shirvell, citing civil service rules that protect government employees from being "fired willy-nilly" for exercising their rights of free speech.
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 28, 2010; A25
One of the small ironies of the Bishop Eddie Long scandal is the preacher's self-pitying complaint, in a Sunday sermon vetted by his lawyers, that he feels "like David against Goliath."
Really? Let's see, on one side we have one of the most prominent and influential clerics in the country, the pastor of a suburban Atlanta megachurch that claims 25,000 members. On the other, we have four young men who claim in lawsuits that Long abused his clerical authority to lure and coerce them into having sex with him. Unlike the bishop, as far as I know, none of the accusers is driven around in a Bentley. Or is constantly attended by a retinue of aides and bodyguards. Or cultivates and maintains first-name relationships with famous politicians, athletes and entertainers.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that a decorated flight nurse discharged from the Air Force for being a lesbian should be given her job back as soon as possible in the latest legal setback to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
The decision by Judge Ronald B. Leighton of Federal District Court comes as a tense debate has been playing out over the policy. Senate Republicans blocked an effort to allow lifting the ban on the policy this week, but two federal judges have ruled against the policy in recent weeks.
The nurse, Maj. Margaret Witt, had sued to get her job back.
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 24, 2010; A6
The Obama administration objected Thursday to immediately ending the military's ban on openly gay service members, saying that an injunction to stop the "don't ask, don't tell" policy might harm military readiness in a time of war.
In a filing with a federal court in California, the Justice Department said that a judge who struck down the policy as unconstitutional should not enforce that ruling with a military-wide injunction banning the discharge of gay service members.
Republican State Senator John Brueggeman of Polson is taking a stand on homosexuality, and is proposing a bill which would strike language from Montana law which prohibits homosexuality.
Brueggeman says he expects to roll out draft language in the upcoming weeks.
This comes after news hit the press about the Montana Republican Party adopting a platform to keep acts of homosexuality illegal.
ANN ARBOR (WXYZ) - Andrew Shirvell has fought battles in courtrooms throughout the state, but it’s a fight he’s picked with an openly gay college student that has some wondering if this attorney is out of order.
In classroom’s across the state, Attorney General Mike Cox uses videos to teach students the dangers of internet predators and cyber bullies.
“We want you to be safe on the Internet, and in particular, we want to protect you from Internet predators,” said Cox in the video.
It is practically unheard of for a sheriff to suggest publicly that a member of his legislative delegation should be prosecuted.
Rare also is the legislator whose local sheriff is quoted in the newspapers proclaiming him "a conniving, backstabbing, no-good son-of-a-bitch who does most of his work from the funny farm."
Those distinctions belong to former Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Metairie, who died last week. Since the sheriff in question was the late Harry Lee, Hollis was entitled to take the animadversions as a compliment when they were made in 1997. Lee was famously liable to fly off the handle. His fans always praised him for speaking his mind; detractors were of the opinion that he would have been better off using it before opening his mouth.
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- John Waters, the filmmaker and actor known for such movies as ''Hairspray'' and ''Cry-Baby,'' has an idea for how gays and lesbians can push for marriage equality.
His suggestion at the North Louisiana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Shreveport? ''I think we should just try to make heterosexual divorce illegal.''
Waters was the celebrity guest at the festival, which honored him Sunday with a cocktail reception and two showings of his 1981 film ''Polyester.''
While at the festival, Waters -- wearing a sport coat with red and neon-pink curves -- signed copies of his autobiography ''Role Models'' and his 2004 album ''A John Waters Christmas.''
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 13, 2010; 3:22 AM
When gay couples were given the right to marry in the District earlier this year, John Beddingfield and Erwin de Leon were among those who quickly obtained marriage licenses. In April, the Woodley Park couple - who have been together for 12 years - quietly exchanged vows before a justice of the peace.
Yet even as they pledged to stand by each other in sickness and in health, Beddingfield, 46, the rector at All Souls Episcopal Church, and de Leon, 44, a doctoral student from the Philippines, were aware that their marriage still hadn't guaranteed them the same rights as heterosexual couples. The District recognizes their marriage, but the federal government does not. The country that had given de Leon a home, given him an education and given him Beddingfield would not allow him to start the process of becoming a citizen, even as it extends that benefit to the foreign-born spouses of heterosexual U.S. citizens.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay members of the military is unconstitutional, a federal judge in California ruled Thursday.
Judge Virginia A. Phillips of Federal District Court struck down the rule in an opinion issued late in the day. The policy was signed into law in 1993 as a compromise that would allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve in the military.
The rule limits the military’s ability to ask about the sexual orientation of service members, and allows homosexuals to serve, as long as they do not disclose their orientation and do not engage in homosexual acts.
Focus on the Family has launched an odd attack on legislation I introduced in the Senate to help prevent and respond to bullying in schools. Their legislative bullying highlights the type of intolerance and ill-informed divisiveness that contributes to the harassment in schools that this legislation seeks to prevent.
The Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced in the House by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, would require schools and districts receiving designated federal funds to adopt codes of conduct specifically prohibiting bullying and harassment, including conduct based on a student's actual or perceived race, color, national original, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
Since 2008, ChristWire.org has emerged as the leading Internet site for ultraconservative Christian news, commentary and weather reportage.
“Hurricane Earl Projected Path, Gay East Coast of America,” ChristWire opined on Monday. One headline in late August proclaimed, “Warning! Black Music Infiltrates the Minds of Future Homemaking White Women.” Last week, referring to Ken Mehlman, the former Republican Party chairman who came out of the closet last month, ChristWire asked, “Why does Ken Mehlman think that choosing the homosexual lifestyle is more important to him than the Republican values he once held so dear?”
GROVE CITY, Ohio — Critics of the country’s largest Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy formed a new Lutheran church Friday at a meeting of a conservative activist group.
The overwhelming voice vote by members of the Lutheran Coalition of Renewal created the North American Lutheran Church, a tiny denomination of churches formerly affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, headquartered in Chicago.
As of early August, 199 congregations had cleared the hurdles to leave the ELCA for good, while 136 awaited the second vote needed to make it official. In all, there are 10,239 ELCA churches with about 4.5 million members, making it by far the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S.
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 27, 2010; A4
Supporters of same-sex marriage have a new and unexpected advocate: Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and manager of President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
Mehlman, now a private citizen and businessman, disclosed that he is gay in an article published online Wednesday in the Atlantic. He said he plans to participate in a fundraiser next month for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which supports legalizing same-sex marriage.
"It's something I wish I had come to terms with earlier," Mehlman said Thursday. "It has made me a happier and better person. But I wish I had had the courage to have spoken out earlier."
WASHINGTON — The top US Marine on Tuesday said most Marines would prefer not to share a room with gay comrades, despite plans by President Barack Obama to lift a ban on gays serving openly in the military.
General James Conway, who has made clear his opposition to ending the ban, said if the law is changed the Marine Corps might look for volunteers willing to share quarters with gays as some "very religious" members objected to rooming with homosexuals.
"I can tell you that an overwhelming majority would like not to be roomed with a person who is openly homosexual," Conway told a Pentagon press conference.
"Some do not object. And perhaps, you know, perhaps a voluntary basis might be the best way to start without violating anybody's sense of moral concern or a perception on the part of their mates," he said.
When it comes to gay marriage and gay families, politicians are still bickering and courts are still deliberating. But in entertainment, it's all over but the shouting.
Hollywood, which once routinely depicted gay people as miserable, dysfunctional or tragic, now produces movies and TV shows — such as this summer's film The Kids Are All Right, ABC's Modern Family and Fox's Glee — in which gay relationships and gay families are portrayed as just like other families — normal, unremarkable, no big deal.
President Obama made four recess appointments Thursday for nominees that have waited an average of 303 days for confirmation, the White House said.
"At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees, and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent," Obama said in a statement announcing the appointments. "Until they do, I reserve the right to act within my authority to do what is best for the American people."
The most contentious of the appointments is Maria del Carmen Aponte, the administration's pick for ambassador to El Salvador.
Senate Republicans questioned her during a March confirmation hearing about a former romantic relationship with a Cuban national connected to Cuban intelligence.
She denied any contact with Cuban intelligence officials but said she met some Cuban officials socially over the course of the relationship.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and other Republicans later placed a hold on Aponte's nomination as they sought additional information about her background.
Minorities disproportionately discharged for "don't ask, don't tell" violations
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 17, 2010; B03
The military threw out hundreds of service members in 2009 for violating its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, including a disproportionate number of women and minorities and dozens of service members in "mission critical" positions, according to a new analysis of military data.
The Pentagon honorably discharged 428 service members for violating the gay ban in 2009, according to statistics reviewed by the Palm Center, a nonpartisan University of California think tank studying the impact of gays in the military. The figure is down from 619 discharged for violating the policy in 2008.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban has more bad news for the measure's backers: He doubts they have the right to challenge his ruling that gay couples can begin marrying next week.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker on Thursday rejected a request to delay his decision barring Proposition 8 from taking effect until high courts can take up an appeal lodged by its supporters. One of the reasons, the judge said, is he's not sure the proponents have the authority to appeal since they would not be affected by or responsible for implementing his ruling.
On Wednesday, unless there is an order from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, gay and lesbian couples in California once again will be able to marry. Like other couples around the world, they will be able to pledge to support each other, buy some dishes, raise families, argue about the bills, maybe sit on a park bench years from now and chuckle at the hysterical old claims that their lives together would destroy the institution of marriage.
All of this used to be possible in California but was made illegal in 2008, when 52 percent of the voters passed Proposition 8, prohibiting same-sex marriage. On Aug. 4, Judge Vaughn Walker of Federal District Court ruled that the proposition violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and due process of law, and, on Thursday, he said marriages could resume beginning Wednesday.
The Forum For Equality and Capitol City Alliance are disappointed by the decision to pull the Baton Rouge Diversity Resolution from the Metro Council agenda.
Baton Rouge had a sad and shameful day Wednesday. The day began with a full page ad, a letter signed by ministers, but paid for by the Louisiana Family Forum using the guise of religion to promote division, intolerance, and bigotry. The day continued with a barrage of automated phone calls sponsored by out-of-state interests to frighten citizens by suggesting that the end of western civilization was at hand. All of this commotion was because of a Diversity Resolution that had the courage to say that “Everyone is Welcome in Baton Rouge.” The day then ended with the withdrawal of the Baton Rouge Diversity Resolution at the Metro Council because of this hateful disinformation.
We are a group of spiritual leaders who humbly recognize those in authority. We honor, obey, and pray diligently for those placed in political offices. You are no exception and our approach to you is done in respect and godly fear. We firmly believe that homosexuals should be treated respectfully as every other citizen and every other religious persuasion because “all men are created equal” and in the image of God. Furthermore, they work, pay taxes, and vote. However, to address personal sexual preference in a special gesture of respectability goes against our consciences and the Biblical references following.
Minnesota-based retail chain Target gave $150,000 to support the political action committee of the state’s ultra-conservative gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.
Target has a history of conservative donations, but Emmer has supported a Christian rock band that has applauded calls for the execution of gay people.
Emmer is the only Minnesota candidate for governor who is against gay marriage; in 2007 he wrote a constitutional amendment barring both gay marriage and civil unions, but the bill did not pass. Emmer also regularly tries to narrow LGBT rights by, for example, trying to replace the word “parents” with the words “mother and father” in a surrogacy bill.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Rev. Ted Haggard stood at a pulpit made from stacked buckets one recent Sunday and announced his resurrection.
Mr. Haggard was forced to resign nearly four years ago as president of the politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals and to step down from the megachurch he founded, after admitting that he had bought methamphetamine from, and had a sexual encounter with, a gay prostitute.
Once one of the most prominent church leaders in the U.S., Mr. Haggard confessed in a tortured letter, calling himself "a deceiver and a liar" who had long wrestled with desires he described as "repulsive and dark." He signed a contract promising to follow a path laid out by fellow clergy: to find a new career in a new state and to stay away from pastoral work.
With a laying on of hands, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Sunday welcomed into its fold seven openly gay pastors who had until recently been barred from the church’s ministry.
The Rev. Dawn Roginski, center, in white, one of seven gay pastors at a welcoming ceremony Sunday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco.
The ceremony at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco was the first of several planned since the denomination took a watershed vote at its convention last year to allow noncelibate gay ministers in committed relationships to serve the church.
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A daily talk show hosted by former "Roseanne" actress Sara Gilbert, which looks at current issues through the eyes of mothers, will replace CBS' daytime soap "As the World Turns" this fall.
Sources on Wednesday confirmed the plans for the show, which is also set to feature panelists Julie Chen, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini.
Lieutenant Dan Choi's National Guard unit has notified him by mail and phone he has been fully discharged and is no longer serving as an American solider. According to Gay City News:
Choi lost his battle with the Pentagon on June 29 when his discharge from the Army under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was finalized. While Choi's National Guard unit informed him by registered mail and with phone messages, he has not disclosed the action. He did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Choi, an Arabic Linguist, Iraq Veteran, West Point Graduate, and Infantry Officer, has been an outspoken opponent of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, engaging in not only media and rally speeches, but also acts of civil disobedience and hunger strikes.
OKLAHOMA CITY — One of the more unlikely showdowns for the fall elections is taking shape here in this staunchly conservative state, where same-sex marriage is constitutionally banned and the Legislature frequently takes on issues like abortion.
Brittany Novotny, a Democrat and Oklahoma’s first known transgender candidate, is running for a seat in the State House against Sally Kern, the Republican incumbent who gained national attention in 2008 for saying that “the homosexual agenda is just destroying this nation” and that homosexuality was a bigger threat than terrorism.
The sentence was resolutely bland and nicely hidden in a long Supreme Courtdecision issued on the last day of the term.
All it said was this: “Our decisions have declined to distinguish between status and conduct in this context.” But the context mattered. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, was talking about laws affecting gay men and lesbians.
Slipping that thought into a case about the treatment of a Christian student group reminded some of a technique perfected by Justice William J. Brennan Jr., whose fellow justices were wary of his “time bombs.”
UNITED NATIONS — The Obama administration and 14 members of the U.S. Congress are urging the U.N. Economic and Social Council to accredit the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission so it can work at the United Nations.
The U.S.-based organization, which has offices in South Africa, Argentina and the Philippines, has been trying since 2007 to get consultative status with the council, which serves as the main U.N. forum for discussing international economic and social issues.
A state program designed to help low- and moderate-income HIV and AIDS patients pay for prescription drugs has had to turn away 177 qualified applicants since officials cut off enrollment June 1 in an effort to plug an $11.7 million budget shortfall.
The Louisiana AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which served 3,500 people last year, also has canceled several contracts with HIV clinics and community-based organizations that provide ambulatory and outpatient care, and it has reduced financing to several community clinics, forcing their directors to consider cutting legal aid, peer counseling, mental health and emergency food and cash assistance programs, said DeAnn Gruber, the interim administrative director of Louisiana's HIV/AIDS Program
While it is not enough, the Metro Council should adopt a compromise version of the One Baton Rouge resolution promoting tolerance in the social and economic life of Louisiana’s capital city.
We say “not enough,” not because of the wording changes that have made the once-controversial resolution more palatable to some members of the council. We say “not enough” because Baton Rouge has much more to do to promote itself as a welcoming community than a nonbinding resolution of good intentions.
Trying to broaden support for immigration reform, key Democratic lawmakers on Thursday will endorse legislation that would grant gay and lesbian Americans the ability to legally bring their foreign partners to the United States.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Rep. Mike Honda of California and others will urge Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act this year as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package.
Kathy Griffin, a relentless publicity seeker who has built her comic persona around seeming less famous than she's actually become, brought her "My Life on the D-List" camera crew to Washington in March to show her support for overturning the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.
"I'm bringing Chanel and [penis] jokes to Washington," she says in Tuesday night's episode, which airs on Bravo. "It's like a Frank Capra movie."
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of Hawaii and our allies react with great sadness, shock and anger at Gov. Linda Lingle's veto of House Bill 444, a civil unions bill passed by solid majorities in both houses of the Hawaii Legislature. Gov. Lingle claimed that this veto was not related to her personal views or political ambitions. The primary reasons given were that civil unions are nothing more than "same-gender marriage by another name" because they offer the same rights as marriage and that civil unions are such an important issue, that it should be put up to a vote by the people.
A judge’s decision on Thursday declaring that a state law allowing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts should take precedence over a federal definition of marriage has exposed the fractures and fault lines among groups working to bolster states’ rights.
The decision, by Judge Joseph L. Tauro of United States District Court in Boston, supports and echoes a central tenet of the Tea Party, 9/12 and Tenth Amendment movements, all of which argue that the authority of the states should trump Washington in most matters not explicitly assigned by the Constitution to the federal government.
Congress, the judge said, had infringed on a question that was the province of local voters and legislators.
Google has recently decided to increase same-sex partner benefits for its “Gayglers,” as they call themselves.
The company’s gay and lesbian employees must pay a sizeable tax on health insurance coverage for their same sex partners, a tax heterosexual married couples don’t have to pay. So Google agreed to start covering that extra cost.
NEW YORK — After a meeting with gay and lesbian activists on Thursday, NBC's "Today" show said it is changing the rules for its annual wedding contest to allow same-sex couples to apply for a ceremony conducted on morning TV.
NBC extended the deadline for applications until Monday. Already thousands of couples have expressed interest in the on-air wedding, which the top-rated morning show has sponsored for a decade, a spokeswoman said.
Watching Elena Kagan's Supreme Court confirmation hearings last week, I felt like I was seeing her interview for two different jobs. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were interviewing Kagan for a position on the Supreme Court requiring a depth of legal knowledge, a nuanced view of the Constitution, and an ability to engage thoughtfully on issues like the First Amendment, workplace arbitration, and oil spill litigation. The Republicans, by and large, were at a different hearing. With little ammunition to defend the current conservative Court against substantive constitutional criticisms, they were unable to escape the irresistible pull of their biggest irrational obsession. In other words, they set out looking for a Supreme Court Justice who shares their strong, anachronistic dislike of gay people.
In a major victory for marriage equality advocates, a federal judge in Boston ruled Thursday in two separate cases that a critical portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.
In one challenge brought by the state of Massachusetts, U.S. district judge Joseph Tauro ruled that Congress violated the U.S. Constitution when it passed DOMA and took from the states decisions concerning which couples can be considered married.
A Presbyterian Church (USA) committee issued a recommendation Tuesday suggesting that the church support same-sex marriages, the Courier Journal reported.
In a weeklong gathering of the church’s General Assembly, the committee on Civil Union and Marriage Issues suggested that the church’s definition of marriage be changed to include gay and lesbian couples. Rather than label marriage as a union between “a man and a woman,” the new definition would describe it a covenant between “two people.” The group voted 34 – 18 in favor of the amendment.
A former Willow Canyon High School student accuses teachers and administrators of failing to intervene when classmates harassed him about his sexual orientation.
Caleb Laieski said he was repeatedly bullied by fellow students who threatened to beat him up and cursed at him because he is gay.
A long-discussed One Baton Rouge resolution that recognizes and expresses tolerance for the city’s gay community is headed to the Metro Council for a vote.
Earlier this week, I got invited to attend an on-the-record briefing with Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes. Let's just say, I don't get invited to many White House events these days. Although, we were asked to cover the cocktail party last week, but I don't do cocktail parties. But, this was the first briefing with LGBT media by a high-ranking Obama administration official, so I RSVP'd yes.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The weak economy is crippling the government program that provides life-sustaining antiretroviral drugs to people with H.I.V. or AIDS who cannot afford them. Nearly 1,800 have been relegated to rapidly expanding waiting lists that less than three years ago had dwindled to zero.
WASHINGTON — A public law school did not violate the First Amendment by withdrawing recognition from a Christian student group that excluded gay students, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision.
CHICAGO—A Wisconsin evangelist will be able to distribute Bibles and discuss sin this weekend at a Minneapolis gay-pride festival, the result of a federal court ruling Friday that could spark a First Amendment battle in the Midwest.
In an article he wrote for Newsweek, Ted Olson lays out "The Conservative Case For GAY MARRIAGE". The article and video can be found on here on Newsweek's website.
